Horizon, Playing God - Tues 17th January, BBC2 9:30pm
Spider-goat, spider-goat. Does whatever a spider-goat does! can he swing from a web?...
In tonights episode of Horizon Adam Rutherford meets a new creature created by American scientists - part goat, part spider. It's super-power - to produce large quantities of spider silk.
Spider silk is one of the strongest substances known to man. Prized for its lightness, elasticity and strength it has an abundance of untapped potential from its use in the manufacture of aircraft and racing vehicles to bullet-proof clothing and artificial ligaments. Until now the supply of silk has been limited to a few spider farms. Not only a large investment for little return, but voracious spiders have the tendancy to eat each other.
This came to the attention of scientists working in the field of synthetic biology, a new field with a radical claim - to break down nature into a kit of parts which can be rebuilt however we please, like lego. They extracted a gene from an orb-weaver spider and popped it into the DNA that prompts milk production in the udders of goats. Hay presto, not 8 legged wool spinners, but spider-goats capable of producing large quantities of silk in their milk - with the added bonus that they didn't want to eat each other.
Synthetic biology is already being used to make bio-diesel to power cars, and biosensors have been created to detect a range of substances including viruses, bacteria, hormones and drugs. Other researchers are looking at how we might, one day, control human emotions by sending 'biological machines' into our brains. To some this is just a front for Frankensteinian genetic tinkering, the most striking of which hit the headlines in 2010 when American biologist Craig Venter, announced that he had created the world's first synthetic life form paving the way for more extreme forms of genetic modification.
Here's a clip from BBC news
which shows some of the highlights from Great Barrier Reef. Presenter Monty
Halls, and producer James Brickell give a fascinating insight into how
it was filmed.
The final episode of Great Barrier Reef is on BBC Two, Sunday 15th January, 8pm.
You can catch up on the first two episodes on BBC iPlayer (expires two weeks after TV broadcast)
Don't miss episode 3, Europe: Thursday 12th January, 8pm, BBC One
In Earth Flight, amazing sights from five continents are revealed in a whole new light as we soar with the birds. From flamingos over the soda lakes of Africa to flocks of waders landing in an invasion of horseshore crabs, and hummingbirds darting through the Grand Canyon. Episode one was a beautiful roller-coaster of a ride, and while at first glance you may expect to be engulfed in a birders wonderland, this series is far more than twitchers eye-candy. Birds are vehicles by which we are whipped along to witness incredible spectacles from the air - as if we were Bastian clinging to the back of Falkor in The Neverending Story. Sadly this show does have an ending, but not before we've revelled in some jaw-dropping moments. One of the most spectacular showed dozens of devil rays jumping out of the water in the Sea of Cortez, something I had never seen before - and as David Tennant said, apparently no one knows why they do this.
Filmed from microlights, hang-gliders, wirecams and 'spy-cams' the film
provides a uniquely privileged perspective - a birds eye view of the
world.
In Lake Bogoria, a hungry fish eagle hunts flamingos. Earthflight uses many different filming techniques to create the experience of flying with birds as they encounter some of the greatest natural events on the planet.
Spectacular images from Earth Flight
Eagle fitter with 'spy-cam' (Image: John Downer Productions)
Bald Eagle (Image: John Downer Productions)
Eagle in flight (Image: John Downer Productions)
Pelicans flying under the golden gate bridge (Image: John Downer Productions)
S shaped flock of flamingos (Image: John Downer Productions)
Snow geese approaching statue of liberty (Image: John Downer Productions)
Vulture in flight (Image: John Downer Productions)
Geese in flight (Image: John Downer Productions)
Landing in a gannet colony (Image: John Downer Productions)
Eagle soars over the Grand Canyon (Image: John Downer Productions)
Budgies fly over Uluru (Image: John Downer Productions)
Geese fly past the statue of liberty
(Image: John Downer Productions)
In two freakily curious episodes Chris Packham takes us around the world to the scene of some of the weirdest natural events on the planet. From exploding toads and parasitic tongue action, to a city coated in caterpillar silk, and the incredible sea foam which turns the Australian coast into the world's biggest bubble bath. With the help of footage taken by eyewitnesses and news crews, he unravels the facts and the science behind each phenomenon.
The female of Cymothoa exigua, otherwise known as the tongue-eating louse, is one of almost 400 species known to attach to the tongues of fish after entering through the gills. Once in place, the parasites feed on the fish, eating away
their flesh and feeding on their blood supply, fortunately the fish is
able to use the swelling parasite just like a normal tongue. The male louse can also come along for the ride, attaching to the gill arches beneath
and behind the female.
Exploding Toads
In April 2005, in the Altona district of Hamburg, more than 1000 dead toads were found to have inexplicably exploded prompting local residents to refer to the area's
lake as "Tümpel des Todes" (Pool of Death). According to a witness these frogs swelled by three-and-a-half times their normal size before
blowing up. Some of the frogs even lived a short time afterwards with their intestines sperad for more than a metre around them.
The finger was inititally pointed at a suspected viral or fungal infection, until Berlin veterinarian Franz Mutschmann performed necropsies on then toads and theorised that the phenomenon was linked to a recent influx of predatory crows. Like a scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he believed that these crows had ripped through the amphibian's chest and abdominal
cavity to pick out the liver. In a typical defensive move, the toads begin to inflate themselves, but due to the hole in the toad's body and the missing
liver, this led to a rupture of blood vessels and lungs, and to the spreading
of intestines. Mutschmann said "Crows are intelligent animals. They learn very
quickly how to eat the toads' livers."
I could have chosen any one of many amazing wildlife moments from Frozen Planet. The desperate battle between a wolf and bison, pack hunting orcas creating waves to hunt seals, or rock stealing penguins, but if I remember just one thing from Frozen
Planet then the 'Brinicle of Death' will
be it. Not only for the 'how on earth did they film that' sense of awe
and respect, but also for the 'holy cr*p, that's something out of
science fiction' disbelief. I still can't quite
believe such a thing exists, it sends shivers down my spine.
It may not strictly be a 'wildlife' moment but I'll let it pass in remembrance of all those starfish which lost their lives, frozen by the 'finger of death'.
"With timelapse cameras, specialists recorded salt water being excluded from the sea ice and sinking. The temperature of this sinking brine, which was well below 0C, caused the water to freeze in an icy sheath around it. Where the so-called "brinicle" met the sea bed, a web of ice formed that froze everything it touched, including sea urchins and starfish" - Doug Anderson
The Jungles episode of Human Planet was a film of wonder and intrigue, which left me ensconced in a world of ancient customs, strange food and the human struggle for survival. My skin tingled as I watched young Piaroa children in Venezuela hunt and then roast tarantulas on an open fire.
Ok, so roasting tarantulas might not usually be considered a wildlife moment either, but I think of it as one of the most fascinating predator/prey relationships portrayed on TV in 2011.
3. David Attenborough gets close to the once elusive indri
A list of top TV wildlife moments would not be complete without an appearance from Sir David Attenborough. My favourite Attenborough moment of the year was when he met an indri, a species of lemur that was once incredibly elusive and almost hunted to extinction. His hushed tones and reverence for the natural world heighten the emotion of this enchanting moment.
"I thought these were the most elusive, shy creatures. It certainly took me a long time to find them, but that they can now be so trusting is a marvelous testament to how people here now react towards them and cherish them. It's a heartwarming realisation that wild creatures like this, and human beings can live alongside each other in harmony" - David Attenborough
I couldn't resist
including a bit of rot in this list, so I chose Channel 4's Life after Death (number two on my rot list was the thoroughly enjoyable Afterlife - The Strange Science of Decay, on BBC FOUR, presented by George McGavin.)
Ever wondered what happens to an
elephant after it dies? No, this wasn't a programme contemplating
elephant heaven, it was an exploration into the squelchingly gruesome
world of decomposition. The star of the show was a young male elephant,
slowly decomposing in Tsavo West National Park, Kenya. He had to be put down by a vet after being severely wounded by poachers. His remains drew
attention from miles around and provided a bounty of fast-food for the
local ecosystem. It also provided a perfect spot for a bunch of
scientists, led by Simon Watt, to delve under the skin of this rich
African ecosystem as a five-tonne elephant was transformed into six
million calories worth of fat, meat and guts. Under the African sun,
voracious vultures, hyenas, leopards and insects picked away at the corpse
day and night, until just seven days later there was nothing left but a
pile of polished bones.
My apologies for the self-indulgence, I had to include my favourite sequence from 'Animals Guide to Britain'. While this series was at completely the opposite end of the budget spectrum to 'Frozen Planet', I feel that we managed to create an insightful, entertaining and memorable sequence.
In controlled conditions, with the use of a series of different shaped gaps and tubes, slow motion photography revealed how a Goshawk is able to negotiate the most densely packed undergrowth. To allow her to fit though some of the narrower gaps, she has to withdraw her wings completely. The slow-motion footage revealed that, to stay airborne, she uses her large tail to give her crucial lift.
Something bright and cheery to start 2012 with... Great Barrier Reef, New Years Day, 8pm, BBC Two
For 10,000 years, more than 400 different types of coral have built thousands of individual reefs in the coral sea off the north-eastern coast of Australia. Covering over 44,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi) they, and more than 1000 islands, have come to define the biodiversity and character of this part of the world. Together, they form the Great Barrier Reef - the largest living structure on the
planet and the only living thing visible
from space.
Uncovering the secrets of this 2000km long super-reef, marine
biologist Monty Hall travels from the wild
outer reefs of the coral sea to the tangle of mangrove and rainforest on
the shoreline, and from the large mountainous islands to tiny coral
cays barely above sea level. Along
the way he experiences the reef at its most dangerous and its most
intriguing, and visits areas that have rarely been filmed, from the
greatest wildlife shipwreck on earth to the mysterious seafloor of the
lagoon, where freakish animals lurk under every rock.
The
freakiest behaviour of the series can be seen in episode 2, when we see the bizarre 'pearl
fish' moving in to take residence up a sea cucumber's bottom!
They usually have a commensal relationship, not harming their hosts. However,
some species are parasitic and not only squirm inside a sea cucumbers anus but as an added blow to the cucumbers self-esteem they also eat their gonads - some lodger!
I saw a
preview of this sequence recently, it sent shivers down my spine...
A pearl fish poking its head out
from
inside a sea cucumber (Photograph: Richard Fitzpatrick)
Episode 1 - Nature's Miracle
The first film, shown at 8pm on New Years day, sees Monty explore the complex structure of the coral reef
itself and the wildlife that lives on it. So vast it is visible from
space, the reef is actually built by tiny animals in partnership with
microscopic plants. It is a place full of surprises, always changing,
responding to the rhythms of weather, tide, sun and moon.
Within
this magical and intensely crowded world this episode reveals how the
amazing reef creatures compete and co-operate - from deadly fish-hunting
snails to sharks that can walk on land, fighting corals and parrot fish
that spin sleeping bags every night.
Deadly snail swallows stunned fish whole
My favourite, and most surprising behaviour, is that of the deadly snails. They might not seem like deadly predators, but cone snails are equipped with a battery of toxic harpoons
which can fire in any direction, even backwards. They await the cover of darkness to prey on sleeping fish. First, they waft paralysing chemicals towards the unsuspecting prey, next they start to suck the subdued fish into their expanding mouths, and finally they use a venomous barb to deliver the killer blow... Don't mess with snails!
(Read more about this incredible hunting technique on BBC Nature)
Sticky Sleeping Bag
Monty Halls with one of the whitetip reef
sharks that cruise the channels off Heron Island (Photograph: John Rumney)
A green turtle on Raine Island, the largest and
most important green sea turtle nesting area in the world. (Photograph: Mark MacEwan)
These brightly coloured specimens live on the
ribbon reefs on the northern edge of the Great Barrier Reef. (Photograph: Tara Artner)
Monty Halls with a nautilus cephalopod in its
spiral shell, taken at Osprey Reef (Photograph: John Rumney)
A tiger shark in the shallows of Raine
Island Photograph: Ragini Osinga
Stunning 3D cinematography takes us into an extraordinary
sub-Antarctic island, home to majestic albatrosses, brawling elephant
seals - and six million penguins. Though our hero’s harsh world may be
alien to our day-to-day lives, his struggle will be familiar to us all.
The last 3D wildlife film that Atlantic Productions produced for Sky 'Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough' was missed by most of Britain when it was broadcast on Christmas day 2009 (less than 70,000 viewers had Sky 3D - compare that to the 12 million that watched Frozen Planet) - but Atlantic did win a Bafta for it.
This new years eve Sky continue to establish themselves as the home of an annual 3D fiesta for geared-up wildlife watchers. With 'The Bachelor King', a tale of king penguins on an Antarctic island, Sky have cleverly jumped into the wake of the BBC series 'Frozen Planet', which was also presented by David Attenborough. With more 3D TV's in British homes (the number of Sky 3D subscribers could now be as many as 200,000) 'The Bachelor King' might get a few more goggle-eyed viewers tuning in. Alternatively, there will be a 2D broadcast - date to be confirmed.
Two more David Attenborough Sky 3D wildlife films are already in production and due to air in 2012 - Kingdom of Plants 3D, a series based at Kew Gardens, and a three part 3D series on the Galapagos.
I may be a little biased, but could Sky be getting inspiration from some of the BBC's most successful series such as 'Life of Plants' and the 3 part series from 2006 'Galapagos'? I look forward to seeing how these Sky 3D productions fare against some of the most beautiful and well crafted BBC 2D wildlife series ever produced.
Interview with David Attenborough - Why penguins? Why 3D?
An Epic Tale
This is the journey of a typical King Penguin from awkward adolescent
to adult.
Three years ago, The Bachelor King left home. He partied at sea - he
adventured, he matured. And now he is returning to the place where he
was born and raised: Penguin City. This is one of the most
densely-packed, sought-after pieces of real estate in the entire
southern hemisphere and somehow he must establish his own place in it.
He must find a mate. He wants to be a dad.
But how? What follows is a journey through the most challenging time
of the Bachelor King's life. There is joy and terror, a ton of hard work
- and some laughs. Our hero has to grow up fast. He meets the penguin of his dreams, and together they set out to
raise a family. Before long, they have their egg. The two of them take
turns to nurture it – one incubating, while the other zooms off to sea
to find food. And then, one happy day, their chick hatches. And the hard
work really begins...
Find out more about The Bachelor King and how it was made on the Sky website.
If I remember just one thing from Frozen Planet then the 'Brinicle of Death' in tonights episode will be it. Not only for the 'how on earth did they film that' sense of awe and respect, but also for the 'holy cr*p, that's something out of science fiction' disbelief. Even though I've heard about this phenomena from the team, spoken with the cameramen Hugh Miller and Doug Anderson who filmed it, and now watched the sequence - I still can't quite believe such a thing exists, it sends shivers down my spine.
Watch the clip below and see for yourselves, and don't forget to tune in for another episode of this years most talked about wildlife series - BBC One, 9pm.
(Filming the 'Brinicle of Death' - photo by Doug Anderson)
You can read the full of how cameramen Hugh Miller and Doug Anderson filmed his wonder of Nature, and find out more about it on the BBC Nature news site.
"With timelapse cameras, specialists recorded salt water being excluded from the sea ice and sinking.
The temperature of this sinking brine, which was well below 0C, caused the water to freeze in an icy sheath around it.
Where the so-called "brinicle" met the sea bed, a web of ice formed that froze everything it touched, including sea urchins and starfish" - Doug Anderson
Frozen Planet, Wednesday 2nd November, 9pm, BBC One
If you haven't seen the eye popping spectacle that is Frozen Planet, then head to BBC iPlayer and join the millions of people who are still picking their jaws up from the floor after last weeks episode 'To the ends of the Earth'. This week Spring arrives, and after five months of night, warmth and life return to these frozen kingdoms - the greatest seasonal transformation on our planet is underway.
Spring arrives to turning heads
Male Adelie penguins arrive in Antarctica to build their nests
It takes a good property to attract the best mates and the males will stop at
nothing to better their rivals! But these early birds face the fiercest storms on the planet. Eventually, the female Adelie penguins arrive, chased from the water by killer whales. Mating and chick rearing lie ahead of them
In the Arctic, a polar bear mother is hunting with her cubs.
Unicorns of the North are on the move
Inland, the frozen rivers start to break up and billions of tons of ice are swept downstream in the greatest of polar spectacles. This melt-water fertilizes the Arctic Ocean, feeding vast shoals of Arctic cod, and narwhal who use cracks in the ice as temporary highways. The influx of freshwater accelerates the breakup of the sea-ice - an area of ice the size of Australia will soon vanish from the Arctic.
Arctic wolves race to raise their cubs before the cold returns.
Elephant seals fight furious battles amongst the greatest mass of animals on the planet.
To celebrate Micheala Strachan's much anticipated return to British wildlife TV I'm playing this track by Scouting for Girls...
Be sure to catch Micheala and Chris Packham, on Autumnwatch this Friday from 8.30pm on BBC Two. Reunited just like the good 'old 'Really Wild Show' days - Martin Hughes makes an amiable stand-in for Terry Nutkins!
Over the past few years Autumnwatch has been broadcast from just outside our offices at the Natural History Unit in Bristol but this year they have made a move to the more colourful National Arboretum at Westonbirt and then for the final four weeks, to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge.
It's one of the most beautiful places on the planet and yet few people have been, or are even able to visit. It's the remote polar regions - splendid, harsh, brutal, beautiful. I was lucky enough to spend a month filming in a remote valley on Svalbard for the series Life - it was a profound experience. For four weeks the sun never set and the harsh polar wind blasted us from all sides threatening to steal our tents, we scaled huge sheets of ice and hiked up glacial streams - it was the first time that I've felt like a true explorer, and yet I was there in the summer!
My colleagues in the Natural History Unit have just spent the best part of three years filming in these brutal landscapes for the series Frozen Planet, they faced some of the last great frontiers on earth to bring home magnificence and awe. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, Frozen Planet will whisk you away to a glistening alien world where giants roam and the earth creaks - Polar Bears, Narwhals, Elephant Seals, these are animals and landscapes that fuel the imagination. Even though most of us live in a seemingly disconnected world our
everyday actions do have a profound effect on their future in this barren
wilderness. The final two episodes of Frozen Planet explore our relationship with the ends of the earth. From explorers and indigenous people to scientists unlocking the secrests hidden in the ice. Some regions, like the Antarctic Peninsula, have warmed
significantly in the years since Sir David Attenborough first visited them. In episode 7 'On Thin Ice' he explores what
this means, not just for the animals and people of the polar regions, but for
the whole planet.
Not since 1993 and 'Life in the Freezer' have we seen a series on the poles as ambitious as this. You may think that it's just going to be another series about polar bears and penguins, but believe me this is going to be a landmark event in television history.
Gob-Smacked
I'm fortunate to have seen a preview of this epic series and it left me gob-smacked. Nothing can prepare you for the splendor of Mt Erebus, Antarctica's only continuously active volcano. It's fuming neck pokes up 12,448 feet above the endless white landscape, its ferocity betraying an inner beauty that few have ever seen until now. At the end of episode one, Freeze Frametakes us behind the scences, revealing the multiple crews and cameras that were needed to film Erebus from the air, from inside the caves and from under the icy waters. The aerial crew had to wait eight weeks to get a clear view of the top of the volcano - it was worth every minute.
Even though I work in wildlife TV some sequences left me in awe of the shear accomplishment of filming the behaviour. My personal highlight is the whale hunting sequence. It reveals how orcas work together to make giant waves, which over several hours wash seals from their ice floes and to their deaths (watch the clip below).
After a three hour attack by a pod of orcas a seal is finally pulled from its ice floe.
Brinicles
One of the most unbelievable moments in the entire series is the brinicle formation. A simple explanation is that a brinicle is like a finger of ice that reaches down from the frozen sea surface, when it touches the sea floor it freezes everything around it. It blew my mind, not only how incredible the phenomenon is, but also how on earth it was filmed. You can find this out first hand, and see some images on the website of cameraman Doug Anderson.
David Attenborough at the Poles
David Attenborough travelled to both polar regions in the making of the
series. He first visited Antarctica 17 years ago, but this was his first
time ever to visit the geographical North Pole. To get there, meant flying in to
a Russian ice camp on the frozen Arctic ocean, where he could (after several
days of bad weather) finally reach the pole itself by helicopter.
He
also returned to Scott's hut, a place he first visited several years ago, but
still touches him today. This is the place where Captain Robert Falcon Scott and
his men began their fateful journey to reach the geographical South Pole. "I
remember very vividly indeed the first time I entered this extraordinary
building…it was not like any other place - because it isn't like any other place
on earth. If ever there was a place that held the personality of the people that
had lived in it, a century ago, this surely must be it".
I can't believe that I didn't work on any of these Dinosaur programmes and that I'm away in the soggy wilderness when they're being broadcast. Too many great films and not enough time to work on, or watch, everything! I only hope that they linger on BBC iPlayer long enough for me to catch up when I get back to the UK.
So while I'm sitting inside our storm-battered, and soggy, house-boat in British Columbia, thinking excitedly about the episodes of 'Planet Dinosaur' awaiting my return home, I notice that I've also just missed...
Extinct: A Horizon guide to Dinosaurs
Dallas Campbell delves in to the Horizon archive to discover how our
ideas about dinosaurs have changed over the past 40 years. From
realising that lumbering swamp dwellers were really agile warm blooded
killers, astonishing new finds, controversial theories and breakthrough
technology have enabled scientists to rethink how they lived and solve
the mystery of their disappearance. And they can even reveal whether
dinosaurs might still be with us today (watch on iPlayer while you can)
In an epic story that takes us from Ancient
Greece to the American Wild West, historian Tom Holland goes on a
journey of discovery to explore the fascinating ways in which our
ancestors sought to explain the remains of dinosaurs and other giant
prehistoric creatures, and how bones and fossils have shaped and
affected human culture.
In Classical Greece, petrified bones were exhibited in temples as the
remains of a long lost race of colossal Heroes. Chinese tales of dragons
may well have had their origins in the great fossil beds of the Gobi
desert. In the Middle Ages, Christians believed that mysterious bones
found in rock were the remains of giants drowned in Noah's Flood.
But
far from always being wrong, Tom learns that ancient explanations and
myths about large fossilsed bones often contained remarkable
paleontological insights long before modern science explained the truth
about dinosaurs. Tom encounters a medieval sculpture that is the first
known reconstruction of a monster from a fossil, and learns about the
Native Americans stories, told for generations, which contained clues
that led bone hunters to some of the greatest dinosaur finds of the
nineteenth century.
This documentary is an alternative history of
dinosaurs - the neglected story of how mythic imagination and scientific
inquiry have met over millennia to give meaning to the dry bones of
prehistory. Today, as our interest in dinosaurs and prehistoric
creatures continues unabated, it turns out we are not so far away from
the awe and curiosity of our ancient ancestors.
Tonight Natural World delves into the seething antistrocracy of the Arizona desert, where a new honey ant queen wages an intense battle for survival as she attempts to build and defend her empire. Eliminating rivals with ruthless efficiency, sacrificing thousands in her quest for domination, murder, cannibalism, genocide - she will do anything to keep her crown. Empire of the Ants is the epic story of one honey ant queen's dramatic rise to power - her brutal fall from grace.
Footage of ant queens working together has been captured by a BBC film crew.
As the sole reproducer in a colony, ant queens are traditionally considered lone figures.
However, in certain species unrelated queens will sometimes co-operate to kick-start a new colony. Read the full article on BBC news
Stuffed to Bursting Point
The largest honey ant workers take on a very special role in the colony - repletes. They are force-fed load after load of nectar by forager ants until their abdomens become the size of peas. As they get bigger, they haul themsleves up onto the roof of the nest to avoid being damaged. Once hanging from the roof, the repletes refine the nectar into thick honey. During long winters and droughts, repletes regurgitate their contents to feed other colony inhabitants - a strategy to enable these ants to survive in the desert.
Heligan: Secrets of the Lost Gardens, Wednesday 17
August
Shot by Charlie Hamilton James this beautiful film uncovers the secret lives
of the many wildlife residents the visitors rarely see.
Komodo: Secrets of the
Dragon,
Wednesday 24 August
Using hi-tech tools to take a fresh look at this prehistoric beast, Doctor
Bryan Fry discovers there is a lot more to the dragon than meets the eye – from
hidden venom glands to its secret origins, thousands of miles away from its
Indonesian home.
The Woman Who
Swims with Killer Whales, Wednesday 31 August
The Killer Whale is the most feared predator in the ocean and most would
consider it madness to enter the water with them. But New Zealander Dr Ingrid
Visser things differently – and by swimming with her beloved whales she’s come
to know almost all of them by sight.
Animal House, Wednesday 6 September
Sir David Attenborough tells the stories of the world’s best animal
architects.
Narrated by Stephen Fry, this new series uncovers surprising stories and reveals new insights into the lives of these extraordinary animals.
They look like fish, but they are in fact warm-blooded mammals. They dive to great depths, yet they breathe air. And with their big brains, complex communication and the recent discovery that dolphins have individual names for each other, their minds could be far closer to ours than we previously imagined...
Over three hour-long episodes, Ocean Giants comes face to face with the world’s most extraordinary whales and dolphins, teaming up with top whale & dolphin scientists as they uncover their surprising stories and reveal new insights into the lives of these remarkable animals. Insights that will redefine how we see them forever….
Ocean Giants share these breathtaking encounters with two of the world’s top underwater cameramen - Doug Allan (Planet Earth’s polar specialist) and Didier Noirot (Cousteau’s front-line cameraman). Travelling from the balmy waters of the Indian ocean to the freezing seas of the artic, Ocean Giants explores the intimate details of the lives of these extraordinary animals, from how they communicate, to how they hunt and mate.
“Once you look in the eye of a whale your whole life is changing. You will never see things the same again.”- Didier Noirot
Episode 1: Giant Lives
The great whales – such as the Blue and the Bowhead – are the largest animals that have ever lived on our planet. Yet surprisingly these mighty leviathans feed on tiny shrimps and sardines. Giant Lives discovers why size matters in the world of whales.
Episode 2: Deep Thinkers
In some respects the brains of whales & dolphins are more complex than ours. Wild whales & dolphins work co-operatively, show empathy and are self-aware. Deep Thinkers finds out how clever – and how much like us – whales and dolphins might be.
Episode 3: Voices of the Sea
Humpback whales’ songs carry thousands of miles, while a sperm whale scans the ocean depths with a sonar laser beam louder than a thunderclap. Voices of the Sea reveals a surprising underwater world where sound takes the place of sight.
Didier Films humpback whales as they compete to mate (Photo: BBC)
